Monthly Archives: December 2008

Image via WikipediaHappy Hypnotic New Year to all who will be celebrating

Here is a completely free hypnosis audio. You know many of us will increasingly want to find relaxed states during 2009 so I thought it would be nice to make an mp3 of a hypnotic body relaxation. It last about 25 minutes and then as long as you want after that. use it as often as you wish.

Please feel absolutely free to pass this on to anyone you think will benefit from listening to this.You are of course free to make as many copies as you want too.

Feeling relaxed and calm are really good for your health and well being so do go ahead download it and use it.

“I really enjoyed the course and learnt such a lot but this course exceeded all of that by so much. This course was excellent , it was fun, interesting ,testing, relaxing and it has helped me develop so much on a personal level. Nigel and Alan are real canny and I am so glad I did this course, it has changed my life”

Heather – Care Assistant

A New Year, 2009 is soon to be dawning. This will certainly be a year that will present both new challenges and difficulties to surpass. For most of us, more than ever, will need the skills to be able to manage and influence how you feel emotionally as well as your physical resources.

Imagine having the ability to communicate with precision and excellence, to really be able to motivate yourself as well as others to achieve personal and professional outcomes. On top of things like negotiation, trauma resolution, stop smoking, de-stress and relax to name but a few. These are just some of the benefits people get from training to become Clinical Hypnotherapists.

Peoples reasons for choosing to pursue this training can be varied. Some people want to acquire the skills to benefit their family and friends others want to set up clinical practice and benefit people in general. Some choose this as a path to further self development, while others want to add to their expanding skills set in their professional and personal effectiveness.

“The course was well structured with lots of experiential trance sessions. The course tutors were always helpful, assisting and guiding where appropriate. The techniques used were very informative, and the information was presented well by the course tutors“

Tom – Company Director

This is about much more that learning therapeutic skills, this is about earning the skills and processes to assist people to living full, productive worthwhile and meaningful lives. Obviously this is including your own.

This course is all about practical application. There are no boring and pointless stuffy lectures, we get right down to understanding hypnosis through doing hypnosis. Some people who are already ‘qualified’ hypnotherapist’s discover how easily they can operate more effectively without scripts and give their full clinical attention to their clients.

“Based on practice and real world applications. Many examples from experienced trainers and well presented and clear manual. And oddly enough what also helped as well was a test which focused the learnings even more“

Nev – Probation Service Officer

Expect to learn, at a deep and experiential level, how to utilise and work as an effective and competent Clinical Hypnotherapist in the most professional and effective ways.

These courses utilise a strong and thorough foundation in the art of Neuro Linguistic Programming ( NLP ). You will learn to operate at a process level where you have the tools and techniques that work and work exceptionally well in any situation.

Image via WikipediaFollowing on from the last hint and tip are you still chattering away to yourself or have you committed some time to applying yourself to the meditation to stop your internal dialogue? Either way, you can do even more.

There are times to have your attention focused fully on the outside world. Paying attention to other people and the opportunities that are very often present for much of the time. Opportunities such as potential new careers, meeting new and interesting people, noticing works of art or perhaps really exceeding your customers expectations. That’s the ability to actually just be in the moment, a human-being.

Gordon Brown is said to be about to tell the British public “The recession is a test of character the British people must pass“as well as we Brits to “rise to the challenge of the economic crisis“. Now this may indeed be a good sentiment for us Brits who are now and will be paying in many ways for what is essentially ‘greed’ gone mad. But how do we survive a recession. Specifically, what can we do?

Taking charge of how you feel, physically and emotionally is one of the good places to start.

A great many people talk themselves into unfavourable emotional states and even ill health. Being able to stop your own negative internal dialogue is one way you can make yourself feel better and be more resourceful to be able to rise to the uninvited challenges that will test your character.

Fear not – if the internal chatter hasn’t quite stopped yet, there is an nlp way that will usually dramatically shorten the meditative time requirement to stop your internal dialogue. For those who think just reading this will be enough, sorry! Again you have to do the exercise.

One of the massive influences on and in NLP is the works of Carlos Castenada. He mentions his benefactors inferences on the importance of ‘Stopping the World’ as a prerequisite of personal genius and growth.

What is the Stopping the World?

Its quite simple, its an allegory for stopping the internal dialogue. And as a result it is about being present in the moment. Being present in the moment is arguably what Zen Buddhism is all about and one of Master Yoda’s teachings too, so it can’t be bad.

The importance and value of being able to, to have the choice to stop the internal chatter can never ever be overstated.

It is about having additional choice as to how to experience and as a result act in the world.

I remember once someone I know very well telling me how they kept track of where they are during performances and presentations, by taking to themselves most of the time in their internal dialogue. I was also privileged to view their performance and noticed how much of the audience responses and interactions they missed by talking to themselves.

Some of the people also watching this made the comment the performer in question was ‘wooden’ and some described this person patronising. I saw this with my own eyes and thought this person was a considerable way out of touch with their audience, missing important real time feedback.

This about it this way. I am sure you have been engaged in a conversation with a friend or colleague and then some thought of your own side tracks you and a little later you find yourself nodding ( in hopefully the right palaces ) and having no real idea what the other person has just said. I think this is an experience we all have had ourselves at some time.

So what can you do about it?

the good news is its actually very simple.

We experience the world with our five senses. What we see, smell, hear, taste and feel.

Think back to the last time you saw a film or listened to some music,it doesn’t matter which. Now remembering the sounds from this memory, answer the following for yourself.

Before you work with your own internal dialogue, here is an experiment for you to try. Remember back to that conversation you had recently and have a play with changing individually all the qualities you identified.

If they spoke fast, slow it right down. If they have a gravely voice change it to a soft whispery voice. If they speak in a high tone make it a low tone. If they were in front of you, imagine they are off to one side then the other.

It is really important that you take just five minutes and experiment and change things around.You can have as much fun as you wish doing this.

Working with your own internal dialogue

OK, here it is. It is really important for you to have done all the previous exercises ( about 8 minutes ) if you want to get the most out of this. Now, check in your own internal dialogue and answer these questions.

What is the tone of your internal voice? High, low, modulating, monotone?

What is your rate of speech? Fast, slow, medium?

Now, whose voice does your internal dialogue sound like?

The first thing to to is realise that in the same way you changed the qualities of someone else’s voice you can do the same with your own. Here are some things to experiment with.

Change the volume of your internal voice. Make it go absolutely silent, make it louder.

Change the the rate of speech. From sounding like Mickey Mouse on helium to a sleepy Moomin just waking up.

Alter the vocal quality. make the voice sensuous, make it raspy and make it whispery.

Modify the location.

Experiment changing your voice to a person you respect and admire or some helpful deity.

Now, once you have really had a good exploration and enjoyable play, find out what is going to benefit you the most. Again you have to be willing to experiment and change stuff around until you really like it. And remember, you can always put it back the way it was or change it to something else.

What benefits will I get by doing this?

Right now I invite you to commit to doing this now for 10 minutes and you will have done the whole exercise.

Of course you really do have to practice to feel the benefits. Make the time. The results are astounding.

It is quite likely that most people who read this won’t do the exercise. They will talk themselves out of it, wont be able to make the time, any number of excuses. it takes just 10 minutes the first time and will likely take much less to practice your new skills.

Before you commit to starting this, take a moment to note down the level of stress, anxiety, worry, calm, relaxation and optimism etc in your life. Rate them out of 10. After one week of practising changing the qualities of your own internal dialogue to simply quietening it right down revisit those marks out of ten.

Be one of the small percentage of people who will do more than just read the article.

Therapists this New Year in Newcastle upon Tyne will see thousands of people want to STOP SMOKING.

People give up things for lent, they want to start and make great New Years Resolutions. Here in Newcastle ( where smoking is still a big thing ) people will want to give it up. Think of all the money a person can save especially in light of this global recession.

If a person smokes twenty a day that is about £30 per week and some £1500 per year, feeding the government and tobacco companies fat purses. Of course its not in the best interests of ongoing health either.

I am extremely selective about the people I work with. I only want to work with people who really want to quit.

One person telephone me about stopping smoking and then went on to tell me how they were sure that I couldn’t help them and that they were probably waisting their money but, did want to try to stop. After about two minutes of this I put the phone down.

As a therapist see, from the offset, I suggest you only work with people who aren’t finding ever sucking excuse to continue their old habit. They are looking for every excuse in the world to keep doing it, they have no commitment to pack it in.

This same person, called back and said that the phone when dead and I told them it hadn’t and that I had hung up. I explained that this was becasue it seemed to me they were trying to find every excuse to continue smoking.

Curiously enough they then asked how much I charge. I told them £85 for a two hour session. WHAT! £85 pound, they said, that is very expensive. It is, I agreed, and again I hung up again. Again they called back.

See think about it, £85 is nothing compared to what it costs to smoke. It is a very small price to pay to STOP SMOKING too. Think about it.

Now, I can interpret their calling back in at least two ways. Maybe they are a bit miffed that I hang up or maybe they do want to stop smoking and are coming to terms with a certain reality. For sure I am only interested in working with people who really want to quit.

It generally takes just one session.

If you really want to quite smoking and this is a really honest and deep desire. Get in touch, its much more than a possibility.

If you do want to make this New Years resolution and really want to change your life …

The event will be fun, stimulating and you will laugh out loud a lot. There are a maximum of 18 places so be sure to book in advance to make sure you get in for the laughs.

“Life today is very stressful. More than 70% of all illnesses have some relationship to stress. The best way to reduce stress is through laughter – its the best medicine and the least expensive. Research shows that laughter decreases stress hormones. Epinephrine is lowered both in anticipation of and doing laughter.

There is more. Laughter therapy helps to increase antibodies – its good for the immune system. Laughter stimulates heart and blood circulation. It is claimed that one minute of laughter is equal to ten minutes on the rowing machine. It also tones facial muscles and expressions – people look younger and are more fun when they laugh.

Laughter is socially bonding. It stimulates the creative side of the brain and leads to clear thinking. ”

Posted onDecember 17, 2008|Comments Off on Hints and Tips for Surviving a tempory recession – HT Five

We all talk to ourselves. Most of us do this a lot of the time too. Its that little voice, our voice that is in our head. Its not the voice we use to talk to others, the external voice that has sound and can be heard by other people.

This is the voice we use silently, either consciously or unconsciously. The one that might seem to have a life of its own, chattering away in the background and foreground of our thoughts throughout the day. This is our internal voice.

Our internal voice is often know as our internal dialogue.

There are times and places where internal dialogue can be very useful. And for a significant majority of learning, doing, performing at our best, opening up and being present to the opportunities in life we really don’t need any ongoing internal dialogue at all.

I recall some years ago, a new student coming to my Kung Fu club. He was rather unskilled but made up for it by being very aggressive and attacking with little apparent control. He had trained at some other club in London and was ‘very advanced’ in his application.

Once in China a man came to the Kung Fu school and talked about how much he knew. How to apply each technique, the benefits of this stance over that stance. The Master asked if he wanted tea. Yes he replied. The master began to pour tea into a cup for the visitor.

The visitor continued talking about his skills and the Master continued to pour. Eventually the visitor realised the Master was continuing to pour and the cup has been overflowing for some time. I think you have made a mistake and have poured tea all over, the visitor said. The Master continued to pour as the visitor continue to talk and talk.

I say said the visitor, looking at the spreading pool of tea, don’t you realise the cup is way over full. Yes said the Master. To begin here you have to empty your cup first.

The visitor to my club, his aggressive style, I think made some people not want to train with him, others somewhat reluctant to get a punch in the face and others still intimidated by him. In short he was very much stuck in one particular way of application.

When this man came to train with the senior Kung Fu brothers at the club he got a very rude awakening. The first time he applied his aggressive style it was redirected back at him with a lot more force. Needless to say he got walloped and then walloped again.

Nose bleeding, seriously winded and tears in his eyes he eventually got some part of the message. What he was doing could not work. There was no refinement or choice in his technique.

He chose not to return to the club.

One of the most profound ways I know to really relax and let go of every day thoughts, worries and stresses is a simple breathing meditation. The purpose of this meditation is to still the mind. To stop the internal dialogue, to find a place of profound peace.

Now. The first time you try this I practically can guarantee that it wont be as easy as you think. I can practically guarantee after just a few seconds your internal dialogue will start up and you will catch yourself chattering away in your head. That’s OK its part of learning.

I learned this particular meditation from a Deepak Chopra product some years ago. I continue to use it still as it is so simple and the effects continue to pay dividends. It is called the …

SO – HUM meditation.

Pick somewhere quite and comfortable to do this and do this sitting up.

Close your eyes and AS you breath in say to yourself with your internal dialogue SOOOooooo and then AS you breath out say to yourself with your internal dialogue Hummmmmmm. Repeat and focus on your breathing. That’s it.

The chances are your internal dialogue of words will start up, distract you from the process. That’s OK. Simply bring your attention back to your breathing. Focusing your internal dialogue so the sounds SOOOooooo Hummmmmmm SOOOooooo Hummmmmmm as you breath in and out.

What will I get by doing this?

Well I invite you to commit to doing this meditation for 10 minutes per day for one week and noticing what changes. You can increase the time from 10 to 20 minutes as you become more proficient in the meditation.

Before you start this. Take a moment to note down the level of stress, anxiety, worry etc in your life. Rate it out of 10. After one week of meditating rate those things again and look out for differences.

Of course you really do have to practice to feel the benefits. Make the time. The results are astounding. It is quite likely that most people who read this won’t do the exercise. They will talk themselves out of it, wont be able to make the time, any number of excuses.

Be one of the small percentage of people who will use this to find calm, tranquillity and clarity of thought.

Comments Off on Hints and Tips for Surviving a tempory recession – HT Five

Some take this as meaning a curse, others take this to mean something challenging, exciting and full of opportunities.

Well, whatever your interpretation it might take a bit of an unusual perspective to say ‘we don’t live in interesting times’.

This coming new year 2009 will almost undoubtedly bring a great many challenges and equally new opportunities.

In what ways will you open yourself to the right opportunities for you and in what ways can you get the real skills and attitudes to turn these opportunities into your own successes?

One way you might want to consider is to do an NLP Practitioner training. Why?

NLP is about understanding and using the subtle and powerful communication tools to better understand, communicate and ethically influence in private and professional application. It is also about creating the right attitudes that will support your goals.

Here are some five key skills you will develop

Being able to communicate powerfully will be much easier for you. You’ll have the skills to easily develop rapport with anyone you meet.

You will be able to recognise and speak other people’s inner language. We all communicate in ways that very persuasive to us but below the level of conciousness. You’ll be able to tune in, see where they are coming from, make contact with people in new ways.

You will be able to change the way that you think. It ain’t what you think, it’s the way that you think it. Subjective experience has a structure, learn how to change the structure and you change the experience..

‘You will learn how to have your unconscious mind work for you instead of against you Sometimes we seem to do things that make no conscious sense and no matter how hard we try we are not able to talk ourselves out of them. You will learn how to harness the power of your unconscious to assist and support you.

You will have the tools to create and maintain the attitudes that support your goals and outcomes. Creating and maintaining the states you want and need to support achieving your goals is a very large part of nlp. Learn many processes to develop the ideal states to drive you to your destination.

The New Year is a time for resolutions and new beginnings. Perhaps you would like to resolve to begin something profound, powerful and life changing.

Posted onDecember 10, 2008|Comments Off on Hints and Tips for Surviving a tempory recession – HT Four

Hello again, Nigel Hetherington here

So far this series of hints and tips have explored, in a very general way, what is essentially your outlook and response-ability for your future.

This article is about the process of beginning to plan your future.

Its about starting to do something, and doing it now…

I recall when I did my first NLP Practitioner the ‘Well Formed Outcome’ was presented as a full and complete process. This demonstrated a worrying naivety of practical application and so in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the first part of creating your outcome. There are other parts that are absolutely essential for successful completion and they will be explore in detail in future articles.

So, this part is about WHAT DO YOU WANT? And exploring this in great detail.

The well formed outcome as far as I understand comes from the creator of Gestalt Therapy Fritz Pearls. There are certain conditions that seem to be required, certainly from a cognitive perspective that make a goal, an outcome even a dream all the more likely to come to fruition. Think about this in terms of a self fulfilling prophesy.

This version of the process requires the following:

Knowing what you do want ( as oppose to what you dont ) – See HT3

Taking responsibility yourself to making it happen – See HT2

Managing your state and how you feel – See HT1

Having a full sensory experience of it ( what you see, smell, taste, feel and hear )

The following process, created and developed by my good friend Andy Hunt is the first step in exploring realistic and desired personal goals and outcomes.

It is all about imagining, pretending and trying out potential outcomes before you make any commitments to pursuing them. Its all done in the safety and infinite resources of your own mind and body.

I have used this process with individuals and companies alike to explore possible future outcomes. I stress this is NOT a complete process. It is a beginning, and what a great place to start.

OK. Lets get to the practicalities. This is an exercise that you simply must do.

Pick some outcomes you want to explore and use the following process created by Andy Hunt.

Don’t worry about this temporary recession. Don’t cancel Jesus Day. Don’t feel anxious. Don’t feel bad you need to take that extra job at the burger bar. In fact don’t drop down into despair and feel bad.

All well and good, sincerely meant to be offering positives. They suggest what not to do and are offered with good intentions.

BUT it doesn’t quite have that effect now, does it?

The effect it has is to FIRST concentrate or focus thoughts on what is in essence exactly what you do not want. Opps!

This is because language, in order to be understood, is processed, made sense of, by what is said first. And this is done so fast it is done outside of consciousness. It is like half a message NOT THIS but then what? Well that will be the SECOND intended effect and we will get on to that a little later.

As part of my job as an NLP Trainer and Therapist I regularly drive to a variety of places in the UK. Doing so I am privy to the many wonderful Road Signs, strategically placed, with the intention of providing information or attempting to deliver a message. Some are particularly poingient in this current exploration. Here are some examples of them.

xxx Accidents in the last year. nnn Fatalities.

Don’t Speed

Don’t not park close to the cliff edge.

All these signs send a message. Some tell you what not to do, others provide information BUT this is only half of the intended message. It is in the form of a warning.

Let me digress slightly. Imagine you have Children ( if you don’t already ) and one of them sticks a pencil that their uncle gave them in an electricity socket. You shout ( quite reasonably ) ‘Don’t do that’. Or they move to touch a disconnected yet still very hot iron, again you shout ‘Don’t touch that!’ They hesitate and await ( if you are quick ) the next instruction you deliver, or not! OK I know the tone and energy of your voice will carry the warning ( it’s not just the words )

So there has, been at least two messages conveyed by you in this instance. The verbal part, the words and much more importantly, the inherent danger, conveyed in your voice tone.

The language and thoughts we use can massively influence and effect how we act in the world. There are a lot of NLP people who get overly excited and carried away about the nature of so called negative commands ( expressing what NOT to do ) and seems to forget that for the most part they do actually work very well.

This next part is particularly focused and tuned to you the reader. Take for example the very reasonable thoughts.

I don’t want to loose my job

I don’t want to feel anxious

I must not allow my boss to bully me

I will never feel confident enough to ask for a pay rise

All of these are very reasonable examples of actual situations. Check these thoroughly for yourself right now. Once you have done that lets address the SECOND part of the intended communication.

I don’t want to loose my job -> I want to continue to be employed

I don’t want to feel anxious -> I want to feel calm and in control

I must not allow my boss to bully me -> I want my boss to respect my opinions and treat me in a dignified way

I will never feel confident enough to ask for a pay rise -> I want to feel confident when I make my supporting case for a pay rise

So as you begin to notice the times you are telling yourself what you don’t want, in addition to that start to add the second half of the communication on to it. Tell yourself what you do want.

Think about it this way

WARNING ( move away ) FIRST -> REWARD ( move toward ) SECOND

A WARNING gives a powerful motivation to do something, perhaps from our fight / flight / sleep system. Now you can channel this energy to direct yourself to what you do want instead. The reward or outcome.

Don’t worry about this temporary recession, instead begin to feel calm and notice what you can do about this temporary situation.

Don’t cancel Jesus Day, celebrate Jesus Day.

Don’t feel anxious, feel a little more relaxed more of the time.

Don’t feel bad you need to take that extra job at the burger bar, instead understand you are taking control of your situation as best you can at the moment.

In fact don’t drop down into despair and feel bad, take courage, keep going and feel as good as you can.

Comments Off on 10 Hints & Tips for surviving a temporary recession – HT Three